I am confused. Could somebody be so kind as to summarise exactly what has just been discovered in as layman's terms a manner as possible for me? Because this sounds big, but my brain can't quite process exactly how.

Well, Poirot referred to "this Administrator" and seemed to be talking about the benefactor who is guiding his actions, such as procuring tickets for travel to New York. It looks like Mr. Administrator has been more directly involved than we previously thought.

Since people have speculated previously that Holmes and Poirot both had the same benefactor, we are now speculating that Mr. A is influencing both of their actions. However, we have not yet received confirmation that Mr. A is Holmes' benefactor.

Does that help? Is there a more specific question you had, or were you confused about another point entirely?

No, that's cleared things up for me, thank you. So we don't know at this point who Holmes benefactor is, but Poirot's is probably Mister A?

I... don't see why Mister A would want Holmes and Poirot to act against each other, if that were the case.

It may be that Mr. A wants Holmes to find Cindarella, or stay close to the hotel because the echo there is connected to him. But that's all conjecture.

The wall will fall, if they stay; then we'll fight another day.Never fear, the tropers here will help the written find their way.

Zup wrote:It may be that Mr. A wants Holmes to find Cindarella, or stay close to the hotel because the echo there is connected to him. But that's all conjecture.

Yeah, I guess he could just have other perfectly rational intentions here and wants to kill two birds with one stone. Holmes and Poirot working together is badass and all, but it kind of halves their productivity.

They sometimes say, "the place where I am right now was circled on a map for me"... Unfortunately, I kind of suck at orienteering.

Zup wrote:It may be that Mr. A wants Holmes to find Cindarella, or stay close to the hotel because the echo there is connected to him. But that's all conjecture.

Yeah, I guess he could just have other perfectly rational intentions here and wants to kill two birds with one stone. Holmes and Poirot working together is badass and all, but it kind of halves their productivity.

I don't think them working together would decrease productivity. Two brains are better than one.

Scarab wrote:No, that's cleared things up for me, thank you. So we don't know at this point who Holmes benefactor is, but Poirot's is probably Mister A?

I... don't see why Mister A would want Holmes and Poirot to act against each other, if that were the case.

I agree that it seems odd for A to split them up, which is why my first thought was that Holmes was working for one of the Cabal. However, A could just want someone in NY to find Cindy and keep an eye on her, while also wanting someone to support the therapist in Boston.

Normal people are the easiest to manipulate. Too smart and they have an annoying tendency to catch wind of your plans, too dumb and, in the words of a certain pirate, "You can never tell when they are about to do something incredibly...stupid."

NeverSlender wrote:I've just noticed this topic has Hecule, not Hercule in the title.

No it doesn't.

The proof is still in existence. You would need to edit the subject line of everyone's messages to remove it totally. Just saying.

Normal people are the easiest to manipulate. Too smart and they have an annoying tendency to catch wind of your plans, too dumb and, in the words of a certain pirate, "You can never tell when they are about to do something incredibly...stupid."

He's determined that BB is the fictional Sweeney Todd. He's not yet sure what he's going to say to the therapist.

Responded. Let's see if a character actually pays attention to my warnings FOR ONCE.

Normal people are the easiest to manipulate. Too smart and they have an annoying tendency to catch wind of your plans, too dumb and, in the words of a certain pirate, "You can never tell when they are about to do something incredibly...stupid."

Hercule Poirot, log dot nineteen October, 4:00 in the afternoon. I speak English for the courtesy of Mr. Administrator. The [sounds like he’s saying “soujé”] is Benjamin Barker, […?] of a modern psychoanalyst of some kind. The [“soujé”] lives in a [struggles with the word “co-op”]… *scoffs* He lives in a cooperative on the outskirts of Boston. As I speak, I have entered into the “coop”… The [“soujé”] is not in the building, I am observing his belongings in his… er, it is not a room; it is a [possible?] bunk bed. It is rather sparse, I will admit. Everything is terribly old-fashioned, yet this man is in his thirties, which is strange. My […?] has a [mantle?]. It has a pocket-sized portrait of a young woman, beautiful […?], lovely choice. Another… sister? Too old to be a daughter, I imagine… Hmmm… below it is a note envelope. This is strange… it is written in old pen with a broken wax seal. […?], it ought to be an historical document, but it is not yellowed or worn as such. The paper seems to be no more than fifteen or twenty years old… Perhaps… hmmm, in here… There is a leather pouch, I open it, and I review a collection of… old fashioned razor blades. Hmmm… there is one blade missing from the pouch… I wonder if he has it.

(I know there are some words missing, I hate working around his accent)

To be honest, I'm not sure how the Cabal can benefit from that. Sweeney knows that he's not from that time, and thus can't find his wife here. That means he will want to go back when told the truth (if he accepts it, or course). And if the Cabal gets in his way, they may get gruesomely murdered. I'm pretty sure they know that, and if they are still going to try to manipulate him, I'd like to know how.

I have attempted to suppress my inner hyperspace future gardener crying out against all the injustice I am committing.

Dryunya wrote:To be honest, I'm not sure how the Cabal can benefit from that. Sweeney knows that he's not from that time, and thus can't find his wife here. That means he will want to go back when told the truth (if he accepts it, or course). And if the Cabal gets in his way, they may get gruesomely murdered. I'm pretty sure they know that, and if they are still going to try to manipulate him, I'd like to know how.

My guess is they'll try to get Sweeney to kill Poirot before he can prove that Sweeney's wife is still alive.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after.

Dryunya wrote:To be honest, I'm not sure how the Cabal can benefit from that. Sweeney knows that he's not from that time, and thus can't find his wife here. That means he will want to go back when told the truth (if he accepts it, or course). And if the Cabal gets in his way, they may get gruesomely murdered. I'm pretty sure they know that, and if they are still going to try to manipulate him, I'd like to know how.

My guess is they'll try to get Sweeney to kill Poirot before he can prove that Sweeney's wife is still alive.

How IS Sweeny's wife alive anyway? Was it never clear in the original story?

They sometimes say, "the place where I am right now was circled on a map for me"... Unfortunately, I kind of suck at orienteering.